Fractional condenser



may 27, 1924. 1,495,972

K. FUCHS FRACTIONAL CONDENSER Filed Dec. a, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet a j 19 'HEAVIER 42 VAPOR :E

EVA PORATOR OIL =9 m. m LLl IL! SUPERH EATED STEAM RES|DUE K, F i J M, /Ib@s.

3 Shoots-Sheet 2 K. FUCHS FRAGTIONAL CONDENSER Filed Dec. 8, 1923 OIL May 27, 1924.

K. FUCHS FRACTIONAYL connnnssa Filed Dec. 8, 1 923 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 STILL HEADE R STEAM EVAPORATION TUBES STEAM L S UPERHEATE R5 STEAM 3: OIL SUPPLY WE\GHT F'EEDERS GAUG E GLASS EVAPORATION TUBES RESIDUE.

STEAM Patented I May :27, 1924.

KARL rncns, or o'nsovA, RUMANIA.

YFRACTLIONAL coimnnsn'a.

Application flledljecember s, 1923. Serial 1%. 679,419.

To all whom it may concern: I Be it 'known that/I, KARL FUcHs, a citizen of the Czechoslovakian Republic, and

residing at Rafineria .de' Petrol, Orsova, Rumania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Fractional Condensers, of whichthe following is a specification.

For the distillation of crude mineral oils, tar and the like, for the purpose of obtaining commercial derivatives, stills of various construction are used, in which considerable quantities of. the combustible fluids are dis tilled in one operation. These stills are heated by external means or by heating pipes, so that the crude material is easily disintegrated by excessive heat action and not onlythe heavy and most valuable oil fractions sufl'er deterioration, but the stills sufier owing to the heated surfaces becom-' ing carbonized.

The object of the preesnt invention is so to carry out the process for the distillation of crude mineral oils, tar and the like that the mineral oil does not distil off by boiling, but is separated from the asphalt by evaporation. For this purpose it is necessary in v the first place for the action of the heating medium to be transmitted to the fluid in such a manner that every particle thereof is exposed to the direct action of heat,'thus necessitating the employment of far smaller quantities of heat than are usually required; This makes it possible to use a heating medium, the temperature of which can not cause chemical decomposition durin distillation. The peculiar way of utiliz ng and regenerating: water vapour as the heating medium forms an essential feature of the densate do not come into direct contact with definite combination.

invention. Finally the invention provides sure means for the separation ofthe fractions by cooling the vapours in stages, in

.dephlegmators, the dephlegmation being effected by the condensate, while it is under the action of the heat of the inflowing, noncondensed light vapour in these dephlegcombination of superheater', and evaporator and Fi 2 shows" a vertical section and front View of dephlegmator,

' Fig. 3 isa plan view of the'superheatei and, evaporat0 r,

Fig. 4 a diagrammatic section on line 4-4 of Figure 2 with a float arrangement for regulating the inflow of the fluid to be distilled and 'Fig. 5 a section on line 5 5 of Figure 2,

Fig. 6 shows a modified form of the distilling plant.

In order to make full provision for the conditions obtaining in the evaporation of the fluid, the said fluid is conducted in predetermined quantities regulated by a suitable distributing arrangement to the top pipe of a heating series of pipe-s and dis-. tributed over the whole length of the same,

.which series of pipes consists of a plurality of horizontal tubes lying one over the other. The fluid drops on to the highest part of the surface of each pipe, so that, owing to adhesion, it forms over the entire surface of the pipe an extremely thin layer, the smallest particles of which are directly exposed to the action of the heating or evaporating surface.

The fluid, which is not evaporated on the surface, of any particular tube will accumulate along the lowest part of the tubular surface and will drip on to the next lower pipe of the series, on which the same sequence of operation takes place.

J In Figure 1 the liquid drops from the trough 1, which is provided with a regulatable inlet, through the holes 2 in the bottom of the said trough on to the top of the pipe 3 and is distributed over the entire lengthv of the same. A thin film 4 of liquid'will form around the pipe 3 and will evaporate. Any particles thathave not been evaporated will accumulate along the lowest part of this pipe, which will act as a" distributor for the pipe 5 lying next below it. In this manner the evaporation is repeated until finally as halt or heavy tar remains as a residue, w ich is conducted away.

The separate evaporating tubes above the other are combined so as to form heating elements 6 (Fig. 2), the pipes being welded "or headed into two stationary chambers}? lying opposite one another. In the said chambers'partitions 8 are provided, which are so arran ed that the superheated steam used as the eating medium always lea heats a certain number of pipes uniformly. This is a great advantage for complete evaporation of the evapo'rable constituents of the crude oil.

As is shown in the drawing a plurality of such heating elements 6 are combined in a vessel 9, which'is provided with an outlet pipe 10 for completely draining the said vessel. Y The accumulated asphalt is tapped off through a siphon-like outlet 11 (Fig. 4t).

e crude material enters the apparatus (Fig. 4) coming first into the. vessel 12, which is rovided with an inspection glass 13 and a cat 14, which coacts with the cook 16, for instance by means ofa cord orchain 15 having a weight at the other end, for

the purpose of regulating the supply. From the vessel 12 the material flows through the pipe 17 to the troughs 1 men tioned above, from which it drips on to the various heating elements 6 and is evaporated.

For rapidly conducting away the vapors of the heavy oil fractions, which have a low vapor tension, and for enabling the vapours to develop at a low temperature, superheated steam, other inert .gas or mineral oil vapours are preferably conveyed at high pressure through pipes 18,- lying below each eatin element 6, the pi es 18 having perforate walls. For rapid y conveying away the distillation vapours, they are preferably abstracted by suction. In the case of very heavy mineral oils it would appear to -be 'referable'to work at a high vacuum, wherey the evaporating temperature is considera ly reduced.

It has been ascertained that for transmitting .the heat required for the distillation of a heavy mineral oil two to three times the theoretical amount of superheated steam is required. For this reason superheated steam has not beenused as a heating medium for such distillation processes on a large scale. According to the invention, however,

- stills or the employment'of heatin the steam is reheated in a su erheater as soon as it has performed work in one of the heating elements 6. By this means the consumption of live steam is reduced to such anextent that its employment is far more advantageous than a direct heating of the For reheating the steam used as t e heating medium, for instance four superheaters 19,20, 21 and 22 arp used (Fig. 3). At 23 the live steam flOWSll'ltO the first superheater 19, is brought to the required temperature and flows through the first heating element. The steam thereupon enters the second superheater 20, in which it is again superheated, and flowsthroughJthe-second heating element. In this manrer the process is repeated of superheating the steam and f' causing it to give oh its heat, until the steam passes from the last heatin either through the pipes 18 into t e evapogases.

element naeaeva cannot first come into direct contact with the condensate, on the tube sheet X, but are in heat-exchanging relation therewith. After thevapours having left the'vessel 9 or having been sucked oil from the same, have passed through the liquid separator 24, "from which the separated particles of, condensed liquid flow ofi at a 25', the vapours pass into a distributing chamber of the de hlegmator 27, from which they are conveye upwards through the upper pipes 28. The ends of the pipes 28 are provided with slits'29, through which the vapours emerge,whereupon they passthrough a filling or porous packing material 30. of the column, which filling rests on a perforated sheet or grid 31. The escapingvapours are cooled by the cooling coil 32 and the condensate drops on to the inclined sheet 33, which causes it to flow on to the upper surface of the cover of the chamber 26 (i. e.

the tube sheet X) The condensate thereupon asses through a labyrinth passage formed y suitable partitions 34, at the end of which there is a wall 35,.whichkeeps the condensate ata definite height, to maintain a definite depth of liquid on said tube sheet. The overflowing condensate passes into a separate compartment 36, from which it is conveyed through the siphon-like outflow pi e 37 to the collecting chamber 38 of t e' dephlegmator and from the latter through the ipe 39 to a cooler or a collecting vessel.

T e condensate is thus kept hot b the vapours continuously flowing in an give ofi its lighter and more volatlle constituents. The same purpose is served b the 11.

outflow of the condensate from the dep legmator being somewhat retarded. Bythe direct introduction of vapours, any )light fractions that may still be present-can be driven ofi. By the successive treatment of the.

vapours in the dephlegmators of a column the product. of distillation can be separated into different fractions, until" finally the non-condensed vapours are removed from the last dephlegmator by'suction. In each dephlegmator the condensate obtainedi'epresents a complete commercial fraction and,

by varying the cooling, it is possible to regulate t e condensate in each dephlegmator as regards its quality and quantity.

Tn carrying out the -process preferably preheated'raw material is used for treatment. order to act at the same time as the cooling medium, is conveyed through the cooling Forinstance the raw material, in

rac-

' ing the vessel 12.

neeaeaa coils 32 of the dephlegmator, before reach.-

In Figure 6 a modified constructional form of the evaporating apparatus is shown, in which the separate fractions of the vapors are obtained in superposed chambers 40, 41, 42, 43, which are isolated from one another. The action of the heater and its construction are the same as in the first example described, superheated steam being in this case as well conveyed into the lowest pipe of one or more heating pipes 44, the pipes of which are divided, into groups in the said chambers, in each of which a fractional distillation of the crude oil is carried out. In the uppermost chamher 43 the quite light constituents are first evaporated, in the second chamber 42 the less light ones, in the third chamber 41 the heavy constituents and in the fourth chamber 40 the very heavy constituents, so that asphalt and heavy tar remain as the residue.

Each chamber is provided with the distributor 45 for distributing the liquid over the entire length of the top pipe of a group of pipes and for causing the said liquid to be evaporated in the manner described above. From one chamber the liquid is conveyed into the next chamber, preferably by siphons 46, the crude fluid being conveyed to the distributor of the chamber 43 from the heater 53, which is heated by the waste steam from the heating elements. In this case as well steam is passed through the pipe 47 into the separate chambers and the vapours are drawnofi' from the chambers at 48, 49, 50, 51 and unvaporized asphalt at 52.

The evaporator chambers may be placed next to one another instead of over one another in which case the fluid is pumped from one chamber to the next.

What I claim is 1. A condenser comprising an upright shell, having a substantially horizontal tube sheet above its bottom and a partition spaced below said tube sheet to form a distributing compartment, a vapor inlet to said compartment, a plurality of upright tubes communicating with said compartment and extending upwardly from said tube sheet, openings in said tubes near the tops thereof, a pervious packing material surrounding the upper parts only of said tubes and extending above the tops of the same, a perforated grid in said shell for supporting the bottom of said packing material a substantial distance above the tube sheet, means for drawing off condensate from said shell above said tube sheet.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1, having, below the perforated grid, and outside of said tubes, an inclined plate for directing the condensate to one side of the condenser, above the tube sheet, baflies upon said tube sheet for causing such condensate to perform a tortuous flow across said tube sheet,

to the other side of the condenser, a dam on the said tube sheet, near the last mentioned side of the condenser to maintain over most of said tube sheet, a substantially uniform depth of condensate, a siphon for drawing off the condensate from behind said dam.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

KARL FUCHS.

Witnesses:

LILLY LEHENDER, MARIN THIGNY. 

